The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-02
THE USES OF POOR WHISKY.
Set Aside for Sale in Prohibition States
Lager Beer and Weak Drinks.

Lager Beer
New York SUM-
What effect does prohibition have on our
business. did you say!" answered one of the
largest wholesale liquor dealers in New York, to
the reporter Well as to the volume of the
trade, don't know that it has any appreciable
effect, except to increase it. Prohibition. how
ever, in any particular locality does have q very
appreciable effect in the demand for much
lower grade OF goods than under a license law.
Where it IS just as much an offense to sell good
liquor as poor liquor. of course the average man
is going to make the best profit he can ont of the
risk he runs. Therefore ne sells poor liquor.
You see." continued the dealer, that in a
place where licenses granted-New York,
for Observation-Disclosures selling is art; and in
place whore prohibition prevails it is crime, and
there Is all the difference in the world between
being artist and criminal.
How does prohibition affect the sale of inn
ported liquors. such as champagnel"
Champagne was the reply, sis drink OF
the wealthy. IL is a luxury. 1t is largely con-
sumed in social clubs and in rich mems houses,
which are beyond the reach of prohibition.
These buy it by the package from importers.
for the State prohibitory laws cannot and do not
interfere with the sale of imported liquors in the
original packages That is. in Maine, Rhode
Island or Iowa the rich man can go right into
the store of an importer Of liquors and publicly
order his case Of champagne, while the poor man,
going to saloon next door for glass of lager
beer finds the door closed and has to hunt
around back entry for drink of poor whisky.
But the sale of champagne is affected by
prohibition, for a good deal of champagne is sold
in the higher class of restaurants and hotel din
ing rooms; and that cannot very we'll be carried
openly where prohibition prevails. The man
who used to order his bottle of claret cham
payne at the hotel dining-room is now piloted
after dinner, before if he prefers, to some
mysterious and carefully-guarded apartment,
where he satisfies his thirst for intoxicants by
one two swgs of whisky. OF course, in such
the whisky is probably good. The whisky
takes place of champagne because it is less
bulky, and, therefore, easier to conceal, and
little of it goes long way, much longer way
than champagne would have gone with the
drinker.
Yes, sir. as the large liquor firms
hear that State has gone for prohibition they
count upon it as another market for their poor
est grade of corn juice"
.'Yes, the sale of lager beer is affected very
considerably by prohibition in some of the
States" said gentleman well acquainted with
the brewery trade Whenever prohibition
comes in many of the people stop drinking lager
beer. They drink hogwashs stuff with perhaps
two per cent. SO Of alcohol. They drink more
alcohol in the end than if they had taken healthy
lager beer made by New York brew lies with
reputation to lose, but it takes them longer to
do it. and makes them sick when they
through. Where the ordinary drinker. in
place like New York, would take two three
glasses of lager beer and be satisfied, and feel
healthy, and happy, and sober, the drinker, in
prohibition town swallows gallon of hogwash,
and then has a good deal more alcohol in him
than the other man, but has had no satisfaction
out of it.
mo; when 1 say that prohibition affects the
trade, I only mean that it affects our trade with
those places which prohibit the sale of good.
healthy lager beer The general consumption of
that excellent beverage is largely on the increase
So is the consumption of hogwash where pro-
hibitiop prevails.